The Nenets, formerly called Samoyeds or Yuraks, are an ethnic group living in the north-east of Europe and West-Siberia. They speak a Samoyed language, belonging to the Uralic group of languages.

From the ancient times reindeer-herding has been the main livelihood of the Nenets. Nowadays it is practised in different types of co-operatives.

Although the Nenets have organised several capitalist co-operatives, most of the herdsmen still work in socialist co-operatives – collective and state farms formed during the Soviet times. The aim of this paper is to analyse the cultural aspect of Nenets reindeer-herding: the connection between reindeer-herding and the general perception of the world of the Nenets. It is mainly based on ethnographic fieldwork material. All the material comes from one single group – the seventh brigade of Yar-Sale state reindeer farm, located in the Yamal peninsula.

Introduction

I came upon the seventh brigade for the first time in the winter of 1991.

I was a second-year student at the time and was wandering through North-Siberia together with a friend, hoping to find something really "ethnographic". We wanted to know more about the traditional lifestyle of the Nenets and that is why we wanted to stay for a while in one of the reindeer-herders’ camps.

I had visited different ethnic groups in Siberia before and I knew what it would be like – people realising the inevitable decay of their culture. Due to the experiences acquired when boarded out at schools far from home and in the Russian army1 they themselves already believed that the lifestyle of their ancestors was shockingly primitive and that it was wiser to assimilate with the Russians. This was the impression I got every time I reached a village with slanting log houses, where, regardless of the large proportion of natives, the Russian language dominated, the working clothes were mostly grey and the only entertainment were the Indian action films in the cinemas.

I was expecting to find the same kind of stuffy and sombre mood in the brigade of the reindeer-herders in the forest tundra where the plane had taken us with a load of salt, following the orders of the state farm director. To my great surprise, getting off the plane I found myself among smiling people, wrapped in colourful fur coats, coming to meet us from the nearby camp and observing us with discreet curiosity. We spent almost two weeks with these people. During all that time I saw a certain cheerfulness and vitality both on their faces and in their behaviour – something the village Nenets had lacked. They certainly liked humour – all their communal activities were accompanied by animated talking and discreet laughter.

Four years later, after having graduated, when my professor asked me whether I would like to write my Master's thesis and about what. I was confident enough to say that it should be "something" about the Nenets living in the tundra. Actually, at that time my knowledge about the Nenets was quite poor – the only reason for choosing this subject was the experience I had four years before that the people were extremely nice and cheerful.

In the summer of 1996 when flying by helicopter above the Yamal peninsula, looking for the seventh brigade, I was quite excited – how would they receive me, did they remember me at all? Five years is a long time, especially when taking into consideration that meanwhile, fundamental changes had taken place in both the political and economic systems of Russia. Most of all I was afraid that the Nenets themselves changed – their cheerfulness disappeared. But these disturbing thoughts vanished immediately after the helicopter had landed. The faces of the people who hurried up towards us expressed familiar cheerfulness and the joy of recognition.

From this very moment the seventh brigade became my "home" for several months. All this time I have been wondering over the reasons for the vitality of the Nenets. Where do they find the energy that helps them endure this difficult and monotonous lifestyle? The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the reason is the reindeer.

This comes out most clearly in the answer of my good friend and informant, a twenty-five-year-old herdsman, to the question why should a young and strong man of twenty-five prefer to live in the tundra and not in a village where all the advantages of civilisation – TV, discotheques and bars – are available? He answered: "But in the village I don't have reindeer!" At this point it should be mentioned that in addition to compulsory secondary education this man had studied for two years in Tyumen, a city of a million inhabitants, although he did not graduate. Another herdsman, the eighteen-year-old son of a brigade-leader, answered as follows: "What would I do there (in the village)? I would just idle around in the bars and get into trouble. But it is not boring in the tundra, we have the reindeer." The same kind of attitude can be found among other Nenets.

Hence, the Nenets do not live in the tundra because they are isolated from the rest of the world and therefore cannot wish anything better. It is more likely that the continuation of the nomadic lifestyle is the result of people's free will. It seems that traditional life based on reindeer-herding can offer more to some Nenets than the Russian "culture" dominating in the villages. I believe that it is not the reindeer as such that keep these people in the tundra but the concept of the world, handed down from ancestors, relying on these animals. For the Nenets people, this worldview, different from village civilization, is in every respect logical and easily understandable.

By the term worldview I mean a way, common to a certain human group, to perceive, interpret and explain the surrounding world. Everything that concerns human life is seen and put into a logical system according to the cultural categories and concepts acquired through socialization. With the help of these categories and concepts, one can make clear to oneself what kind of world one is living in, how should one behave in one or another situation, who are one friends and enemies. Consequently, the worldview includes common convictions of the members of a certain group that influence essentially the day-to-day life of these people, their social relationship and religion.

The concepts and cultural categories connected with the reindeer seem to predominate in the Nenets people's view of the world. During the fieldwork I discovered that the Nenets divide their reindeer into many different categories. Some categories are formed on the basis of objective parameters like sex, age, colour of the animal itself and the colour of horns. Besides these so-called natural categories, the worldview of the Nenets is characterized by a large amount of other “reindeer-categories” that cannot be understood directly by simple observation.

The inhabitants of the tundra live together with their herd from earliest childhood and, step by step, through the activities and with the help of adults' instructions, they learn to distinguish between the necessary categories.

The following paper is mostly based on the material collected by myself. As only some months have passed from the last fieldwork, the present work presents a preliminary analysis of the material. Some of the facts and opinions given here are probably to a certain extent raw and subjective.

That is why the main accent of the work is on the fieldwork experience itself and, in the interests of objectivity, I try to give, if possible, the "story of discovery" of one or another ethnographic fact. An especially sceptical stand should be taken towards the scriptural accuracy of the terms written in Nenets as the Nenets themselves have great difficulties in writing their mother tongue. This is quite understandable because apart from a few Nenets language classes, secondary education is given in Russian. Nevertheless, I regard it necessary to use the original terms because many notions about reindeer are simply untranslatable without changing their meaning.

In the present paper I try to bring out the essential reindeer-connected concepts and categories that would help to analyse the characteristic features of the Nenets worldview.

In order to get a clear and complete picture of the Nenets world, I will first describe for the reader their lifestyle – the nomadic lifestyle – in greater detail.

Nomadic cattle-herding

As a result of 400 years of colonization by the Russian Empire in the Yamal Peninsula, the 7701 Nenets form only 49.4% of the local population (Pika, Bogoyavlensky 1995: 62) and, although many Nenets have moved to the coastal villages, following the example of the Russians, the majority of them (4500 people) still have maintained their traditional lifestyle until today and are herding reindeer in the tundra (Pika, Bogoyavlensky 1995: 62).

The Yamal Nenets are genuine nomads who wander around in the tundra with their herd throughout the year. The landscape, covered with stunted vegetation (different mosses, lichens and dwarf bushes) on the permafrost enables only temporary grazing and forces people and animals to move on continuously in search of fresh pastureland. Traditionally the main autonomous economic units were patrilinear extended families consisting of close relatives that were united into bigger groups (ķćżńū)2 in order to acquire better grazing conditions (Homich 1995: 157). The establishment of Soviet power in Russia brought along the compulsory collectivisation into socialist collective enterprises – collective and state farms (see Golovnev, Zaytzev 1992: 70–72; Kopytoff 1955: 19–20), and from that time on the nomads work in brigades. Officially the brigade is a group administering the property of the state – the cattle of the state farm. The task of the brigade is to graze the reindeer belonging to the state farm throughout the year in order to reproduce the meat reindeer – once a year, in autumn (October–November) a certain amount of animals, corresponding to the yearly increase is taken to the slaughterhouse in the state farm centre. Actually, the brigade is a lot more than just a sub-unit of the state farm. The brigade is the result of the development of adaptation of working practices.

Working in the brigade allowed the Nenets to follow their traditional lifestyle in a situation where the political environment made the private ownership of the means of production – the pastureland and the reindeer – impossible. The compulsory collectivization only changed the form of the nomadic animal herding but the content remained principally the same: although the herd was no longer the people’s private property, groups of herders still wandered around in the tundra with their reindeer in search of fresh pastureland. As a matter of fact, the Nenets people have almost always had their own private reindeer3. There were certain limits on their number during the Soviet times but, still, every family could have their own animals. In the changing political and economic situation the restricted numbers given by the authorities have lost their validity, and today private animals make up a considerable part of the brigade's cattle. For instance, more than one third of the 4000 reindeer of the seventh brigade belong to families.

Basically, even the structure of a state farm brigade does not differ much from the former nomadic group consisting of close relatives. If earlier it was the head of the patrilinear group of relatives who had the authority and right to make decisions, nowadays the brigade leader, appointed by the managerial personnel of the state farm, plays the leading role.4 Still, kinship has an important function.

As the nomadic lifestyle demands readiness for co-operation, and an ability to live permanently together with other people, the core of the brigade very often consists of close relatives. The unity resulting from kinship helps to avoid conflict inside the group and enables more effective co-operation. The core of the seventh brigade consists of six to eight herders, depending on the season and the number of people on vacation, most of them related to the brigade leader either by blood or through marriage – in addition to the two sons of the team leader, his wife's three brothers and his brother-in-law also work as herdsmen.

The task of the herder (ņū ļåšņ˙) is to take care of the herd, to drive the animals to new pasturelands at the right time and to watch that the herd would not scatter because of the mosquitoes and gadflies in summer and because of snowstorms in winter. Looking after the herd and taking it to new places proceeds in shifts, two men (ģąėźīäą) in every shift and the length of the shift 20 to 30 hours. One of the most difficult times for the herders is in May when the reindeer are giving birth to their young ones (ņū ķčöü): calves are born during an approximately month-long period and the herdsmen have to make sure that the reindeer cows with their new-born calves do not remain behind the rest of the herd.

Although it is the herders who directly take care of the reindeer, the fulfilment of this task would be impossible without the help of their families. The Nenets family is a so-called extended family by nature, as three generations of close relatives live together. In addition to the parents and their children, the grandparents and spinster sisters and brothers (and sometimes married relations) of the husband also belong to the family. For most young couples it takes several years to obtain their own house and that is why they live together with the husband's family at least during the first years of their marriage – i.e. it is a father-dependent family. That is why the number of people belonging to one family is relatively large. For example, in the seventh brigade, four families include altogether between 25 to 30 members.

Observing the Nenets in different everyday situations, it became clear to me that the large number of family members is necessary to cope with the tasks of the reindeer-herders.

Taking care of the reindeer and constant migration is possible only if people cooperate with each other. Women have to perform household duties – supplying firewood and water, cooking, taking care of children, sowing – and help men in their work. The pre-school children and retired parents of the herders do not have specific tasks, but it is presumed that they help other members of the family according to their abilities. In summer, the boarding-school children who are on holiday also take part in pasture and household works, everybody according to their age and gender.

The main character of the lifestyle of the Nenets living in brigades is constant migration – moving from one grazing ground to another. The Yar-Sale state farm is divided into 22 reindeer-herding brigades, every one of them have their fixed pastures and exact moving schedules. In summer the animals are kept in the bare tundra of the North Yamal and, as winter comes, they leave the peninsula for the forest tundra lying south of the polar circle which has nourishing moss and shelter from the winds.

The distance the brigade has to cover within a year is quite awesome. I have been both in the northernmost camp of my brigade which is located in the centre of the Yamal peninsula, almost on the same latitude as the Yaptik-Sale village (69°3') as well as in the southernmost pastureland which is on the same line as the town of Nadym (65°7'). The distance is more than 400 kilometres as a crow flies. By land, looking for suitable river-crossings and avoiding numerous lakes, going from North to South, the brigade covers a distance which is at least by one third longer. And this has to be done twice a year.

So, in the tundra, man and the reindeer are always together. It is in many ways natural because the life of the Nenets depends on the reindeer in the very sense of the word. Unlike many other groups dealing with reindeer herding, for instance, their close neighbours – the forest Nenets (see Verbov 1936) and Selkups (see Gemuyev, Pelikh 1974), who are hunters – the most important or even the only source of livelihood for the Nenets living in the Yamal tundras is the reindeer.5 Although, if there is an opportunity, the Nenets also fish and hunt, it is the existence of reindeer that guarantees everyday food. During all the time I spent in my brigade there was not one day when I did not eat meat or some other product of the reindeer – blood, liver, brain, tongue, bone marrow. Other necessary food – bread, tea, sugar, salt and mustard – is obtained from the state-farm centre where once a year the brigades are provided with things necessary for a half-year migration cycle.

The dwelling of the Nenets is as simple as their food.

As the people have to be in constant movement because of the reindeer, the only possible dwelling has to be a portable and easily-pitched tent. Although during the Soviet times the tundra Nenets were encouraged to dis-accustom themselves from their "nonhygienic" lifestyle (see Vinogradov 1932), they still live in their conical tents or chums (ģ˙').6 The chum has a simple construction (more details see Chernetsov 1936) and it is easy to set up: reaching a new campsite the conical framework of long poles is put up quickly and on top of it goes the tarpaulin (in summer) or reindeer skin (in winter) cover. Usually it does not take more than 40 minutes, and at the most an hour after reaching the new campsite it is possible to drink tea peacefully in the chum. The number of the chums in the camp depends on several circumstances: the number of the families, the season, the size of the herd. Very often many families live together in one chum because the smaller the number of the chums, the easier it is to move the camp to a new place. It is especially important in summer when the travelling conditions are difficult. The time spent in one camp depends on the specific requirements of the time. If there is enough fresh pastureland and there is no need to rush – bigger rivers have been crossed before the ice drift – the unit can stay in one place for up to two weeks. In winter there are a couple of longer stays: the more nourishing moss of the forest tundra gives the camp a possibility to stay in one place for almost a month. Still, the camps are mostly set up only for two or three days, especially in summer. The statistics based on my diary shows that during one summer month we had changed the campsite 12 times.

To transport the camp, specially trained draught-reindeer (åķą õąįņ, õąįņūšźą) are harnessed to wooden sledges or nartas (õąķ). These little wooden nartas have to hold all the lodging: chum, dishes, tools, clothes, food and religious items. To move into a new campsite, long caravans – ģžäś's, are formed, consisting of 5 to 10 nartas, in which every narta is usually pulled by two reindeer. In front of all is the leading narta with 4–5 reindeer, where the person driving the ģžäś' is sitting. The brigade going towards new pastures consists of 10 to 12 ģžäś's depending on the number of the chums and families. The ģžäś's going one after another can make up a caravan (ģžäś'') covering several kilometres.

The team consisting of reindeer and narta is the most important instrument of the herdsman. It is used when looking after the herd and when visiting friends and relatives.

The reindeer have remained the only means of transportation for the Nenets both in summer and in winter. Even the herdsmen who have been able to obtain a snowmobile, do not use very much in their everyday work. They keep their vehicles with their relatives living in Yar-Sale. Twice a year when the brigade stays for longer near the state farm centre, the snowmobile makes it possible to establish quicker and more frequent connection between the camp and the village. Obviously, the snowmobile revolution (Pelto, Müller-Wille 1983) has not taken place in the Yamal tundra, partly because of their high price. But the bigger obstacle is the nomadic life itself: constant migration and isolation from the infrastructures make the usage of snowmobiles quite senseless. Under most given circumstances, the best vehicle is the reindeer.

For the inhabitants of the tundra, reindeer skins are of vital necessity. They are used to make clothes suitable for severe weather conditions. The long hooded anoraks for men (ģąėüö˙), fastening fur coats for women (ļąķū) and high boots for both men and women (ļčāą) seem to be the only possible clothing as for both their manufacture and warmth-keeping in the cold and windy tundra. The skin is also used to make covers for the chum in winter, for the arkans7 and harnesses of the draught animals. The tendon fibres of the reindeer are used for sowing.

Although the reindeer-herding brigades are officially subunits of the state farm, subject to central direction, they have been quite independent. Whether and how they can manage, depends totally on themselves. During the Soviet times the communication between the brigades and the centre was much more regular thanks to portable radio stations, and, if necessary, a helicopter or a plane was sent to rescue the brigade in trouble. Although the Soviet-type co-operative economies still exist, there is nothing left of the former glory: the radio stations have not been working for years and every expensive helicopter trip could give a deadly blow to the state farm’s budget. In these conditions, the Nenets can only rely on his reindeer who provide him with food and clothing and means of transportation when going for the doctor. In this sense they live now as they did two hundred years ago.

The Nenets themselves understand their vital dependence on the reindeer. That is why they want to ensure the welfare of the reindeer by all means. But at the same time they believe that in many ways it goes beyond their power and they have to hope for good luck.

The herd's good fortune

During the fieldwork it happened many times that the logic of the Nenets just amazed me. I could not understand their contradictory behaviour in certain situations. My host family had an understanding attitude towards my fieldwork: although I was presumed to work in the household (supplying firewood, carrying the water), I could choose to work with my pen or camera at any time. Once in summer, when there was no wind at all and the air was thick with mosquitoes, I was eagerly taking shots of harnessing the reindeer for the next moving. If the Nenets had usually been quite indifferent to my this kind of activities, then at that time the father of the family sullenly asked me to come and help him. I tried to find out why all of a sudden we were in such a hurry. The only comment I got was that: "The reindeer are suffering from the mosquitoes." I also experienced several times later that behind decisions notunderstandable from the human point of view was the well-being of the reindeer. This is also noticeable in the contradictory behaviour of the Nenets connected with eating mushrooms. If a Nenets is offered some mushroom sauce in the village, he would eat it with good appetite but in the tundra he does not pick any mushrooms at all. He justifies his behaviour by saying that mushrooms are the favourite food of the reindeer and man should not deprive his animals.

This respectful attitude is not due to economic considerations only. For the Nenets the reindeer is more than just the source of living. This animal is the main indicator of prestige. The bigger the number of the reindeer and the more beautiful they are, the deeper the respect towards the person who owns them, which in its turn, gives the person more authority. It is understandable because the reindeer is the only status symbol of the Nenets. The rational lifestyle resulting from the nomadic cattle-herding excludes big differences in private property: all the inhabitants of the tundra live in the same type of chums, wear clothes made of the same material, and eat the same food. The only indicator of wealth that differentiates one man from another is the size of his reindeer herd. The fact whether a person owns a herd of thousand (øķąšģ ņżņå) or only of forty animals (ģąćļąäą) in many ways determines the attitude towards him. A successful herdsman has lots of friends and fellow workers and many visitors find their way into his chum. That is why the Nenets herders similarly to the Lapps (see Paine 1994: 109) are more interested in owning the animals than in the profit they make out of them. Sometimes the passion for having as many "heads" as possible takes the form of stinginess. I have had tea in a chum the owner of which had a herd of several hundred animals but all he offered with tea were crackers.

It seems that the prestige coming along with a big herd does not so much proceed from economic wealth gained through diligence and hard work than from the existence of so-called luck. When I asked the Nenets why did one man have over a thousand reindeers and another one less than forty, then almost always the answer was that it was a question of luck. For the Nenets luck means the favour of the gods. Emphasizing random luck is quite reasonable as the number of the animals can change radically during a short period of time. On the one hand the increase of the reindeer is quite rapid and, under favourable circumstances, the herd can grow remarkably even within one year. On the other hand, the reindeer are exposed to different diseases and attacks by wolves: epidemics, a certain hoof-and-mouth disease and Siberian plague can kill whole herds (Yevladov 1930: 45–46) and some ten wolves can kill hundreds of animals during one night (Priroda... 1995: 241, Yevladov 1930: 46–47). Although man can do something himself to enlarge and protect the herd, he sets his hopes on good luck above all.

At the same time, excessive success in herd-herding can painfully pay back in other fields of life. I was told about a brigade-leader who had had ķ˙āąöąs in his herd for several years ahead. These are reindeer cows who are under a year old themselves and give birth to a calf. Thanks to these animals the herd grows considerably every year. But at the same time there is something wrong in his family: his daughter died of anaemia and the health of the brigade leader is also very poor.

At this point I should mention another phenomenon related to the luck of the herd. Namely, the Nenets believe that the birth of a calf with an unusual appearance is a good omen of forthcoming luck for the herd. The very clear omen is ńžķ ņū, an animal whose horns do not grow at all. Allegedly there is only one reindeer like that in the whole Yamal peninsula. An animal with one horn only – āą˙ ńžķ ņū – will also definitely bring luck. Often a reindeer with an unusual colour combination is also an omen for good luck for the herd. If a black-and-white skin animal, called ńąģąšīņźą is not rare in a bigger herd, then ķćżāąļšč whose body is totally white and only the head is black is a firm mark of heavenly favour for every herdsman. Actually, it seems to me that then every Nenets, if he tries hard, can find an animal from his herd who acts as an omen of good luck. To my question what colour of reindeers did they like most, many herders said that in general terms the animals of unique colour were better because they bring luck. Every herdsman has at least one individual that stands out from the rest of the herd. Even the relatively frequent white reindeer ńżš is regarded as a good omen to some extent. The difference between ńžķ ņū and ńżš seems to be in strength only: if in the case of the first animal there is now doubt about the help of heavenly powers, the existence of the other shows the quiet approval of the gods. This kind of attitude seems very reasonable, especially when taking into account the fixed idea of the herders to have as many animals as possible.

Consequently, the reindeer seems to have an important part in the vision of the world of the Nenets. Regarding the economic importance of the reindeer and its function as a symbol of status, it goes without saying that the evaluating system of the people and the models of behaviour based on it rely on this animal to a great extent. It is confirmed by the many specific rules of behaviour in the Nenets society that are meant to ensure the safety of this precious animal.

Taboos

The reindeer is exposed to different dangers in this world. The mosquitoes, gadflies, diseases and wolves can do harm to the herd. One of the sources of danger is man himself. The Nenets believes that certain human activities can be harmful for the reindeer and that is why he has set all sorts of limits or taboos for himself. For instance, I was scolded once when I was lying in the chum and watching through the doorway the reindeers strolling outside. I was told simply that "... this is õżāū!". The Nenets themselves interpret this as “sin” because it is derived from the word õżõż which means god or divine – consequently an activity like that is forbidden by god(s). They explained scolding me with the fact that the reindeer I was watching could just die. There are many taboos like this in their life. It is also õżāū if somebody, after removing a pot of soup from the fire, lets the hook (ļą) swing. As a result the reindeer of this person can scatter because of the mosquitoes. That is why it is not a very rare scene that in the middle of eating many herders rush to stop the hook in order to avoid the worst.

The Nenets seem to have taboos necessary to guarantee the safety of the reindeer for all kinds of different situations. Often it depends on the sex, age or some other factor determining the status of the person involved. On the last day of my fieldwork, just before leaving the camp, two herders asked me to help them skin newly killed reindeer whose carcass had to go to the centre of the state farm together with me. When the animal was cut up it turned out that it had a roughly one month-old embryo in its stomach. The herdsmen stopped cutting, scratched the back of their heads and asked me to pull out the dead embryo. They explained that for them it was õżāū and that usually it was done by the oldest man in the brigade; as all the others were just drinking tea in their chums, then, as a foreigner, I was the right person to carry out the task. It was not considered to be a sin for old men and foreigners – as they do not have animals of their own, they cannot be punished directly.

Nenets women are in an especially difficult situation because of the numerous taboos.8 I came to this conclusion after a discovery I made during another fieldwork. My principal method of fieldwork was exact and repeated observation of different so-called social situations (see Spradley 1980). One of these social situations is making a kraal or enclosure (øšźīėą). Men drive the draught animals by shouting and gesticulating into a semi-circular enclosure (āą) made of carriage sledges and old fishing-nets and, after this, the women close it with cord. They make a øšźīėą every time they need draught reindeer – whether to drive the camp to a new place or to go for a visit or to carry out some work. Instead of catching the animals with the arkan (˙šźīėą) this enables them to get the necessary reindeer quickly. Consequently, øšźīėą is a very suitable situation for systematic observation because practically every day – and sometimes even many times a day – somebody needs draught reindeer. Besides, one of my obligatory duties was to help women holding the cord. On the basis of the observation in my "workplace" I found out that men and women behave differently during øšźīėą.

It is mainly the men who choose the reindeer in the kraal. Women have to let the cord down so that the men together with their selected animals can get out of the kraal. After that men come over the cord with the reindeer. When most of the men have finished, there are usually some women who go into the kraal as they want to choose draught animals for their sledge (ķåõąķ) themselves. But coming out of it they do not step over the cord but lift it over their heads. The reindeer coming after them walk over the cord. When I asked, why would they behave like that, the women answered shortly "... in past times our ancestors did so – people who have reindeer and gods act like that." Only several days later when I was "accidentally" alone with my best male informant in the middle of the reindeer herd I was lucky to get a more detailed explanation. As I had already realized, this behaviour was based on another taboo connected with the reindeer. My informant told me that because of menstrual blood, women are unclean and should not step over things that have been in contact with the reindeer. Otherwise misfortune would befall the reindeer of her family: they could fall ill, break their legs or be attacked by wolves. When observing the Nenets women moving on the campsite, it is amazing how skilfully they avoid stepping over all the things used or presumably used in reindeer herding. Every piece of cord or wood can fall on the narta and thereby be in touch with the reindeer, not to mention the arkans and drivingsticks9 lying all over the place.

The impurity of woman (ń˙ģåé) is one of the most important concepts in the Nenets vision of the world. Very many models of nomadic behaviour are explained by the impurity characteristic of sexually mature women. Because of ń˙ģåé there is a strict classification of jobs in the brigade: men deal with cattle-herding, women do household jobs. Hereby it should be born in mind that household jobs include carrying water, supplying and splitting firewood and also making up the conical framework of the chums and fixing the heavy floor boards. The participation of women in religious activities is also restricted by ń˙ģåé. In the interests of accuracy it should be mentioned that it does not seem to influence the social position of the women. Although the basic decisions concerning herd-herding are made by the circle of men, women have a relatively significant right to speak in domestic affairs and their opinions are taken into account when discussing more general questions. I have also seen very authoritarian men but mostly I have got the impression that the spouses are equal partners – very often it is the wife who has the final say and makes the final decision.

Stressing the impurity of women and connecting it namely with the reindeer brings forward another important conception in the Nenets vision of the world: the woman’s impurity is contrasted to the purity of the reindeer.

The pure reindeer

The Nenets regard the reindeer as a very pure animal both the direct and the indirect sense of the word. This attitude was confirmed very vividly through another fieldwork experience. At the time I was living in the brigade, one of my duties was to hold the reindeer while a herder cut pus out of the wounded hoof of the animal. As the procedure usually took place on the pasture, it happened quite often that, when forcing the animal close to the ground, my hand happened to touch a pile of reindeer droppings. The first time my instinctive reaction was loud ranting and facial grimaces expressing disgust. But the faces of the nearby Nenets became serious and, feeling offended, they let me know that the reindeer is an extremely pure animal and even its excrement needs respectful treatment.

The Nenets explain the many characteristic features of the nomadic lifestyle with the purity of the reindeer, beginning with the fact that the raw meat and blood used for everyday nourishment does not contain harmful parasites and ending by saying that thanks to the reindeer skin the Nenets wearing it can do without washing for months. It should be commented here that my experience rather confirms than contradicts these statements of popular wisdom: hundreds of kilos of raw reindeer meat and tens of litres of blood consumed by my body during the time spent in the tundra did not cause any severe health disorder; and I was also amazed that my feet looked surprisingly clean after a twelve-hour workday in the reindeer-skin boots in the course of a whole month.

The Nenets’ understanding of the purity of the reindeer becomes clearly evident when comparing their attitude towards another vitally important animal – the dog. The dog is an irreplaceable aid of the herdsman but its position is unusually low in the people’s eyes. Naturally, the dogs are looked after to a certain extent – at night, they are allowed to come into the chum to shelter from the mosquitoes or cold but it happens only because of their utilitarian value. For the Nenets the dog is not a pet but just a tool. I was the only person in the whole brigade who played with them, as I came from the world of expensive decorative dogs and even more expensive "Pedigree Pal". The dogs naturally took advantage of my kindness and every time I entered the chum they crept inside after me hoping to find some piece of food. This may have been one of the reasons why the usually indifferent Nenets began to disapprove of my friendship with dogs. They did not understand how I could play with such dirty animals who stink of all sorts of repulsive things. This opinion is well justified because the dogs are fed with food that is not suitable for humans – rotten meat, intestines etc. An important reason why the dogs are regarded as dirty in the tundra is, because of an inexplicable reason, many dogs want to eat human excrement – the Nenets do not believe that this results from hunger. Thus the very clear distinction between the purity of the dog and the reindeer for the Nenets becomes evident: the first animal is a smelly swallower of anything, while the second is an animal subsisting mainly on clean moss.10

This concept of purity is of decisive importance for the worldview of the Nenets. It also helps us understand why the reindeer plays such an important role in their religion.

The sacred reindeer

According to the understanding of the Nenets there is an innumerable amount of all kinds of supernatural creatures in the world. The animistic concept of the world looks at every bigger stone, strange-shaped tree or hill emerging from the level ground of the tundra as a living-place of a spirit. It also makes the people consider even with the tiniest forest-, water- or bramble-fairy. In addition to this, the life of the Nenets is influenced by different authoritative gods of Heaven and the Underworld and the spirits of the dead. It is in the interests of man himself to get on well with these supernatural powers.11 A good relationship with the gods can be guaranteed by proper behaviour – for instance obeying the taboos – and with the help of sacrifice.

The sacrificial animal of the Nenets is the reindeer. When taking into account the above-mentioned concept of purity, using some other animal would seem like sacrilege. I have taken part in several dedication rites, and always the sacrificial animal is the reindeer. Actually, the routine slaughter of a meat animal is also a kind of sacrifice: a noose is put around the animal’s neck and, pulling it from both ends, two men can strangle the reindeer within some minutes. During this time, the head of the reindeer should always look towards the sun and before the last breath of the animal, it is often turned round three times in the direction of the movement of the Sun. The Nenets themselves explain that this is how they remember their most important god, Ķóģ. Ķóģ, which means “heaven”, does not interfere directly in the everyday life of the people – he neither helps nor punishes them – and that is why he is usually not offered special sacrifices. But, as himself in Heaven, Ķóģ sees everything with his eye – the Sun. It seems to me that he is for the Nenets something like fate, and the existence or non-existence of the luck of the cattle depends on him. Anyway, it is quite reasonable to remember him before spilling or drinking warm blood.

In addition to blood sacrifice the Nenets are connected with supernatural forces through their living "sacrificial animals". Every family has at least some animals of this kind and they are all castrated reindeer bulls or õąįņs. It is characteristic of these animals that they are either dedicated to some deity or in some other way connected closely with the supernatural powers. The task of these animals is in the first place to protect themselves. The general term used for them is õżõżķņū õąįņ – god’s reindeer bull. Õżõżķņū õąįņ is easily recognisable from the rest of the herd because unlike ordinary bulls the horns of the sacred animal are not cut. Most of them are very "beautiful", as the Nenets themselves say: big, strong and with nice fur. The simple explanation for this is that they are used either very seldom or not at all as draught animals. Naturally, driving the õżõżķņū õąįņ is a taboo for women.

One of the õżõżķņū õąįņs is ķćą ņū – a black-coloured animal (ļąščńå, ķąš˙ąķą) who is dedicated to the powerful underworld god Ķćą. As Ķćą is the god who sends diseases and death to the Earth, if his reindeer is among the herd, it should prevent the herd from falling ill. However, often this does not help and, to prevent the animals from falling ill, a real blood sacrifice has to be made. Once when we were returning from the northernmost pastureland of the brigade I discovered by a pole with a calf’s head on top that had been put up in our recent campsite. The head on the top of the pole was coal black and dripping with fresh blood. I found out that with this sacrifice one of the herders had decided to ask Ķćą not to let his evil aids – spirits of diseases – follow the brigade. To protect the herd, some reindeer are also dedicated to Ķóģ. In contrast to the reindeer of the God of Death Ķóģ‘s reindeer has to be of light colour – white (ńżš) or with white spots (ļąāäč). Ķćą and Ķóģ are powerful gods and only the shaman can decide which gods do the men need. When the right god has been chosen and the respective image has been made, a reindeer has to be sacrificed to him. Consequently, the existence of a divine reindeer presumes that the family also has the image of the correspondent god who lies on the sacred narta (õżõżõąķ) together with the other idols of the clan and family. A man usually inherits the sacred narta and its contents from his father and that is why the divine reindeer also comes from the previous generation. When the reindeer grows old, a new one is initiated: the old reindeer is killed in front of the sacred narta and with its blood the figures of the Sun and arrows are drawn on the sides of a young reindeer of the same colour.

A vital animal from the herd’s point of view is ļčāķ˙ ˙äżšņą or the wolf reindeer. The animal is usually of greyish colour (ņūģóé) like the wolf itself and it has a picture of a wolf on its side drawn with the blood of the previous wolf reindeer. It is believed that this animal dedicated to the master spirit of the wolves protects the cattle from the wolves: the wolf is thought to believe that in the presence of this reindeer it is not allowed to attack the herd. Every family has to have special sacred reindeer to pull the sacred narta õżõżõąķ ńč' (ńč' means the reindeer in front of the narta). As the spirits of the ancestors have an important place in the religion of the Nenets, they have a special reindeer – ķćūņąšģą ņū – dedicated to them. The owners of these animals are the little dolls of the ancestors kept in the chum – grandfather (čšč) and grandmother (õąäą). It seems as if the õżõżķņū õąįņs somehow duplicate the functions of the gods of people. While the idols of and Ķóģ and Ķćą kept in the sacred narta and dolls of the ancestors in the chums look after the welfare of the people then ķćą ņū, ķóģ ņū and ķćūņąšģą ņū have to ensure the safety of the reindeer. At the same time both the icons and the reindeer of the gods are two different forms expressing the same power. Every time the herder looks at his animals he is reminded of the world he is living in.

Although the fate of a Nenets and his herd in many ways depends on a good relationship with supernatural powers, the most important is his everyday "tool" – the draught reindeer. The relationship between the herdsman and his draught reindeer might even be called friendship.

Reindeer – the friend

Every time the herdsman stands in the middle of the reindeer driven into the kraal or is choosing draught animals for the ģžä' or the narta he has to consider many different criteria. His choice will depend on the character of the work to be done, the distance of the journey and the condition of the landscape and weather. He also has to consider when he last used one or another reindeer to avoid exhausting the animals. Knowing the abilities of all his draught reindeer, the herdsman makes his choice according to this information. If some useful animal has been left out, it will be caught with arkans.

In reality the selection is not always as rational as mentioned above. Personal sympathies and specific preferences resulting from actual necessity play their role, especially when choosing animals for the driving narta. To cover longer distances, sturdy draught animals – ķżäąėøšös are used. But which animal will be harnessed to the narta does not always depend on its strength but on the fact whether one has to work or goes to pay a visit. The opinion of the master of the animals is very often made on the basis of his reindeer and that is why the appearance of the draught animals is even more important than their endurance. When going to visit somebody, animals of the same colour, height and shape of horns – õąķ ńčs – are chosen to pull the narta. This kind of selection is not always justified. Once in winter I was in real trouble with two big-horned ńąģīšīņźąs which the Nenets had chosen for my narta. We had to visit a neighbouring brigade about 20 kilometres away and my friends wanted to "present" their foreign guest with the greatest effect. The way up there was quite easy but on the way back my leading reindeer grew tired regardless of its big horns and beautiful fur. I reached my home camp about an hour later than the others.

The personal sympathy of the Nenets towards certain reindeer shows in the frequency of harnessing: the fewer times the herdsman harnesses one or another animal, the greater his respect for the reindeer – the less the animal is exhausted, the stronger and more beautiful it is. In summer, for instance, the ķżäąėøšös are not often used because it is impossible to travel far as conditions are difficult and it is not sensible to torture good draught animals. The main task of the herdsman in summer is to look after the cattle and watch that they would not scatter because of the mosquitos. Then the most important work animal is the ģąėźīńü – a slow and lazy animal who is good at trotting after the herd. Naturally, it is impossible to use one and the same reindeer all the time. But if a man has enough reindeer he is able to get along mainly with the ģąėźīńüs. The faster and stronger draught animals pull narta much more seldom and if they are harnessed it is mostly just to remind them how to pull a narta. The Nenets explain their attitude by saying that some reindeer just have to be in better condition than the others. The strong and rested animals are often the only ones who can be relied upon in critical situations – one does not go for a doctor with an ordinary work reindeer.

Their preference for fast reindeer is especially clear when using the race reindeer – ń˙ķąźī ģżņąs. Narta racing is probably the most highly regarded field of sport for the Nenets. One of the reasons for its popularity is the valuable prizes given on the sporting days arranged by the state farm. Although the official competitions take place once or twice a year, the racing reindeer are trained quite often – at least once a month if possible. The Nenets try to avoid using the racing reindeer in everyday work because this would spoil the animals.

Another specific and seldom used category of reindeer is ķąāźą. Ķąāźą is an animal, which, due to some special reason, has grown up in the people’s camp and that it why it is not afraid of being close to people like all other animals. If the mother of the calf happens to die accidentally or is not able to take care of its offspring, people often take the orphaned animal into their chum. We had two such calves in our camp in summer. They were fed with moss gathered by children and with bread and fish soup. Over the years, every family has brought up dozens of animals of the kind. My hostess used to call to them by pet names holding bread in her hand – as a result a large number of reindeer of different ages gathered around her, waiting for tasty bits, stretching out their noses. Ķąāźą is not simply a useless pet, its duty is to help people in many critical situations. On urgent occasions when there is no time to make øšźīėą, some ķąāźąs wandering near the camp are caught with the help of a piece of bread and harnessed to the narta. It is especially important when the herd has run far away, frightened by dogs. I have seen many times that during a trip the herdsman skilfully replaces the draught animal who has freed itself of the harness of the ģžä' with a nearby ķąāźą. Consequently, the ķąāźą is a very important animal. The special place of this animal in the worldview of the Nenets is illustrated by the custom that one’s own ķąāźą is never killed or eaten. The old pet is given to a relative or friend to be eaten and a young untrained bull is got instead – this animal is called åé or exchange. The comment of one herder on this subject was: "How could I kill my ķąāźą? We have almost eaten from the same plate." The herder can be tied emotionally to a specific reindeer when it comes as a present from a good friend or relative. It is common in the Nenets society that many important human relationships are cemented through the medium of the reindeer. For instance, some of the tundra Nenets still have the custom of paying a bridal dowry (ķå ģčš) consisting of reindeer to the father of the bride before getting married. The animals given to the father of the bride are discreetly named "the present" – ģ˙äīńżé. An average bridal dowry consists of approximately thirty animals of different sex and age.

Ģ˙äīńżé is also an animal one gets as a present from a relative or friend. In most cases it is a trained draught animal. According to good manners the receiver of the present is expected to return a gift in two or three years. If the person who got the present wants to tighten the friendship with the giver, he would give back two reindeer, if possible. In winter, when there is more time and snow enables faster movement, people visit each other regularly. Reading my diary, I found out that there was not one day in March when our unit did not entertain guests or go to visit somebody. As, according to Nenets customs, the present is always given by the receiver of guests, almost every time there are some more reindeer in front of the guests’ nartas. The importance of giving presents in the Nenets society is illustrated by the fact that within the private herd almost half of the reindeer can be ģ˙äīńżés.

All the draught reindeer have names – this describes the attitude of the Nenets towards their animals. The reindeer may not react to its name, but it is of great importance to the owner – using the name differentiates this very animal from the rest of the herd and brings out its individual qualities. One herdsman can own over a hundred draught animals and it is really amazing how he can remember all the names. Usually the reindeer is named according to its colour or shape of the horns. Very often a diminutive suffix, -źī is added to a name. For instance, a white reindeer is called Ńżšżźī, an animal with long and protruding horns is named Ķóš÷čźī. A reindeer's unusual appearance also gives reason for a name – one animal was called "Georgian" because of its hooked nose. A reindeer can get its name due to its character or to some event. One herder called his favourite reindeer "Sawdust" because when training him to become a draught animal the narta fell to the dusty ground. The ģ˙äīńżés usually have the names of the people who have given them as presents, for example Õąńīāąźī õąįņ or simply Õąńīāąźī. What is characteristic here is that the reindeer are often called after the Nenets first name of the giver, not after the everyday Russian names.

The draught reindeer is more than just a tool to the herder. The Nenets knows that, if necessary, he can rely on the help of one or another animal. That is why he tries to make their life easier and this often happens on behalf of the less favoured animals. This attitude can, with some reservations, even be called friendship. My good friend and source of information once concluded the subject like this: "These special reindeers ķąāźą, ń˙ķąźī ģżņą, ļčāķ˙ ˙äżšņą ņū give meaning to your life. They are part of your life. You can always rely on them."

Conclusion

The nomadic Nenets live in a world that at first sight seems monotonous and dull – there is no entertainment – no TV, no bars, no expensive clothes or "educated company". Life in the tundra seems to offer only strenuous work and inhuman living conditions. The fact that the majority of the Yamal Nenets have remained true to the traditional lifestyle of their ancestors is more a pleasant surprise than something self-evident. This is especially remarkable in the situation where a large number of the Nenets have a long-term experience of "culture" thanks to boarding-schools and to the army: in addition to getting acquainted with the "advantages of civilization," this experience also includes the negative identity forced on the native inhabitants together with its consequences – the wish to assimilate.

As a result of my fieldwork in the seventh brigade this contradictory picture has to some extent cleared up for me. The cheerfulness and the vitality of the brigade members that was not understandable at first has become more comprehensible. In reality, I think that the mental welfare of the tundra people depends, to a great extent, on the existence of the reindeer. After several months of observation and interviewing I came to the conclusion that, for the nomadic people, harmony is guaranteed by their worldview based on the reindeer. This worldview gives them security for the future: a man who has reindeer has food, transport, gods and friends. This world-vision functions as the basis of the Nenets in their attitude towards their environment. In their worldview, the reindeer-connected conceptions and cultural categories dominate and, using them, the Nenets decides how to behave in different situations and what to expect from his companions. There is no sphere in the perception of the world which is not connected with the reindeer in one or another way – be it the belief in fate, the attitude towards women, animistic religion or relations between kins and friends.

The whole vision of the world proceeds from one fundamental argument – the reindeer is, above all, a trustful friend for the Nenets. It is a friend who makes the severe and monotonous life in the tundra worth living and satisfying.

Translated by Mall Leman

1 The schoolchildren (forms 8 to 11) of the natives working in the tundra and in the taiga live in Russian boarding schools in big settlements. Therefore, they spend most of their childhood and puberty in a strange cultural and language environment. Children can be with their parents only during the summer holidays, i.e. for only some months a year. After finishing school, young men have to serve their compulsory 2 or 3 years in the Russian army.

2 Here and henceforth, the Nenets words are given in the Slavonic alphabet.

3 The collective farmers were allowed to have private reindeer from the late 1930s (Kopytoff 1955: 80).

4 One of the duties of the brigade-leader may even be arranging marriages of fellow brigade members (Kopytoff 1955: 80).

5 In the Yar-Sale state farm there are also the so-called hunters' brigades whose task is to hunt fur animals (mainly polar foxes). At the same time, the basic source of food and transportation of these "nomadic hunters" is their small herds of reindeer.

6 Here and henceforce, the names of everyday items or events common among the peoples of Siberia and understood by the local Russians, are given in italics.

7 Arkan (ņūķē˙) is a 10 to 15 metre-long reindeer-skin lasso for catching the reindeer.

8 L. V. Kostikov has written more thoroughly about the position of women in the Nenets society (see Kostikov 1930a).

9 Drivingstick (ņžš) is a 3 to 4 metre pole used by the driver of the narta to drive the reindeer.

10 At the same time, there are some reindeer in every herd who like human urine. In winter there were always about ten animals or ģ˙čķććąä near our camp who licked the snow permeated with urine. They were especially numerous early in the morning and late at night when people had just got up or were preparing to go to bed. Most of the ģ˙čķććąäs are not afraid of people and so urinating can be quite dangerous because of their scuffling and swinging horns.
The Nenets do not see here any contradiction to the conception of purity of the reindeer as the salt in urine is said to be useful to the animals. I could often see the owner of the herd "watering" his favourite animals and talking gently to them at the same time.

11 Kostikov has written in more detail about the role of the sacred reindeer in the Nenets religion (Kostikov 1930b).

References

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• Yevla